


A New Beginning

by SloaneDestler



Series: Second Chances [2]
Category: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera & Related Fandoms, Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux, Phantom of the Opera - Lloyd Webber
Genre: Canon Era, F/M, Fluff, Hope, Kissing, Love, Marriage, Marriage of Convenience, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, New Year's Eve, One Shot, Pining, Pregnancy, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 07:34:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28467606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SloaneDestler/pseuds/SloaneDestler
Summary: Erik and Christine are spending their first New Year's Eve together as a married couple, and while there is still much to be decided between them, he wants her to have a beautiful night.
Relationships: Christine Daaé/Erik | Phantom of the Opera
Series: Second Chances [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2046779
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40





	A New Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first one-shot set in the same universe as my story Second Chances. It takes place during the time-skip between chapters six and seven, and I think can be read on its own if you haven't read the longer story. Although there are obviously some references to it, there aren't any spoilers, or at least not any that aren't revealed in the tags or the first chapter. Enjoy!

Christine sat in her chair in the library, waiting for her husband to join her. Erik was finishing tidying up in the kitchen after the delicious dinner he had prepared for them to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Even though she had taken a nap that afternoon, she found herself nearly nodding off, between the warmth from the fire in front of her and the amount of food she had eaten.

She would have reminded herself that she was eating for two, but she didn’t have any regrets about the volume of food she had consumed. Christine’s appetite was very good these days, with the baby expected to arrive in less than two months if everything continued normally. At times she found herself worrying about the month she had spent on her own, when she had never had quite enough to eat, and had been ravenously hungry by the time she decided to beg Erik for help. Had it affected her baby? At least she knew the little one was still growing inside her.

Thankfully, Erik chose that moment to enter the room, saving her from starting a spiral of worrying about something she had no control over and a question she wouldn’t know the answer to until the baby arrived. Abandoning her racing thoughts for now, she smiled at her husband, happy to see he had not replaced his mask after dinner.

“My dear, you look a little sleepy,” he said, coming to stand in front of her chair rather than sitting in his own. 

“I am. I don’t know if I can stay awake for the new year.” Although Christine wouldn’t have thought Erik cared one way or the other if they stayed awake until midnight, she noticed a slight frown at her words.

Holding a hand out to her, he asked, “Maybe Erik could play for Christine, and we could sing? He has a surprise for her, but it has to wait until midnight.”

Christine looked at Erik thoughtfully. He referred to the two of them in third-person less and less these days, so she felt something must be making him anxious. If it was simply concern that she would fall asleep before he could give her the surprise, he needn’t have worried - just the mention of a surprise was enough to hold her attention.

Smiling up at him, Christine took his hand, feeling a thrill of happiness when Erik’s thumb swept over the gold ring on her finger. It was small moments like that that made her feel Erik was truly happy to have her as his wife, even though she had come back to him pregnant with another man’s child.

*****

After Erik played the piano for her and they had sung both together and separately, passing a wonderful evening together, he rose and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Even though he hadn’t so much as glanced at the clock behind him, he said, “Excuse me for a moment, Christine. It’s nearly time for the surprise,” chuckling a little when he saw an eager gleam in her eye. “My petite does like her surprises, doesn’t she?” he continued, but Christine found she couldn’t take offense, not with the happily amused look in Erik’s eyes. Besides, it was a true statement.

Erik returned in just a few minutes, carrying her heaviest winter cloak as well as his thickest cape and his fedora. To Christine’s brief disappointment, he had replaced his mask, although she knew Erik still wore it whenever he left their home. However, why were they leaving the house at this late hour?

“Will you come with me, Christine?” 

She nearly asked where they were going, but stopped herself. Erik obviously had a surprise planned, and she doubted he would tell her what it was. Besides, she trusted him to keep her safe.

*****

After they donned their outerwear Erik led her upstairs, but when they reached the main level of the opera house, instead of leading her outside, they continued to ascend, until Christine realized he must be taking her to the roof. She should have realized sooner - surely if Erik wanted to take her out of the opera altogether, they would have used the Rue Scribe entrance as they normally did.

The closer they got to the roof, the more her anxiety about their destination increased. The last time they had both been on the rooftop had led to disaster, when Erik had eavesdropped on her and Raoul and heard her confession of how she had lied to Erik so that he would let her leave his house.

Had she lied to Raoul that night, as well? Christine had told him that she didn’t love Erik, but had that really been true, or had she been denying the truth to herself as well as him?

Not that it mattered any longer, she supposed. That spring night seemed like a lifetime ago, as though it had happened to an entirely different person than the one she was now. In some ways, she  _ was  _ a completely different person. Never could she have predicted where she’d be by the year’s end, or everything that had happened in the months between.

Wondering what Erik was thinking was the true cause of her nerves, however. What he had learned on the rooftop that night had sent him into a spiral of grief and rage. Would those feelings come back over him once they were back there? Or was he planning some kind of long-delayed revenge on her, and on Raoul’s innocent baby?

Instantly stopping that line of thinking, Christine chided herself for letting her imagination get the better of her when just minutes ago she had been thinking about how much she trusted her husband. Erik had been doing so much better when it came to controlling his emotions, he had given her absolutely no reason to think he would hurt her.

But when Erik carefully helped her with the last bit of their journey and they emerged onto the roof before he led her over to stand underneath the statue of Apollo, she found herself holding her breath, only to feel beyond silly when all he did was wrap his arms tightly around her, pulling his cloak around her as well so they were both enclosed in it.

Christine felt even worse about her errant thoughts when Erik pressed a light kiss to the hood of her cloak before resting his chin on the top of her head. When she looked up and saw the sight before her, however, all thoughts flew from her head, as she gasped at the beauty in front of her. Here in this last hour of the year, the lights of Paris twinkled and shone as though they were the fairies she had believed in as a child. And while even Erik certainly couldn’t have planned this part, snow had started to fall, glinting in the air like diamonds.

When his little wife gasped in wonder, Erik felt a smile curve his thin lips. Although lately his emotions had seemed to be in a constant state of flux when it came to the baby, tonight, with Christine held securely in his arms, he felt as close to peaceful as he had in quite some time.

Telling himself he was doing it because he knew it made Christine feel closer to him, he spread his long hand over her stomach, deeply burying the longing he felt at the action. Thankfully, Christine spoke, distracting him.

“Oh, Erik! It’s so beautiful I don’t even know what to say.”

“Now you know how I feel every time I look at you,” he replied seriously, but Christine giggled as though he were jesting.

“Oh, you flatter me, Angel,” she replied with a pleased tone in her voice before falling silent to gaze at the vision before her again.

As he cradled her - and by extension, her child - Erik stared blindly at the lights before them, hoping Christine could sense what he had really meant by bringing her to the rooftop again, this time with them together, soon to welcome a child into their home. The last time they had been here, nothing but ugliness had resulted. He hoped that greeting the new year in this very spot would be symbolic of the fresh start they were trying to make together.

Christine would never love him, not as anything more than a friend, at least, but she was  _ here  _ with him, willingly, and that was far more than he had ever truly thought he would have.

When the church bells of the city started to ring, signaling the new year, she twisted in his arms to look up at him, but when he saw the tears in her glistening eyes, Erik started to panic.

“Christine! What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she whispered huskily, “Absolutely nothing,” raising her face to his in a gesture that Erik knew well by now. Relieved, he bent his head to meet her lips with his, kissing his darling wife while the bells rang in the new year.

Christine clung to Erik as he kissed her tenderly, feeling her love for him practically bursting out of her. The only thing that prevented her from confessing her feelings to him was the knowledge that they were no longer returned. But tonight, in this beautiful moment, the thought that she had her dear friend and teacher back in her life, as well as the child that had indirectly made it possible - as strange as that seemed - almost felt like it could be enough. It was certainly better than the alternative of a life without Erik at all.

Their kiss continued on long after the bells stopped ringing, only ending when Erik felt Christine shiver in his arms. Reluctantly pulling back, he gently traced one slender finger over her perfect cheek, pleased in spite of himself at the slightly dazed look in her blue eyes. Glancing up, he saw that the snow had picked up considerably during the time they had clung together.

“Petite, you’re shivering. We had better go home and get you warm.”

Christine gazed up at her husband. “I  _ am  _ a little cold, but a part of me doesn’t want this night to end. It’s so magical.”

Erik seemed to straighten a little at her words, and Christine could tell he was pleased that she had enjoyed his surprise so much. However, now that he had realized she was cold, she could also see that he was growing anxious to get her back to the warmth of their home.

Reaching up to give him another quick kiss, she decided to take pity on her poor husband, before he picked her up and physically carried her back inside. “All right, Angel, I’m ready to go home.”

As Erik gave her a small, slightly relieved smile, he turned to lead her back into the opera, still leaving his arm around her. Feeling slightly flirtatious after the lovely gesture Erik had made for her, she decided to tease him just a little. “And, I’m ready to go to bed.”

Erik paused for a moment, surprised at her words, before tightening his arm around her and walking just the slightest bit faster, Christine noted with satisfaction.

Although she still didn’t know exactly what the future might hold for them and their decidedly unique situation, this beautiful night had left Christine with a feeling of hope. Whatever fate had in store for them, there was no one she would rather face it with than this strange, caring man at her side, this man who had helped her and her defenseless baby in spite of all the ugliness that lay between them when she had nowhere else to turn.

Somehow, out of all the pain of the past, they had emerged with another chance to make a future together, no matter how impossible that had seemed at one time. Maybe it was the optimism inherent in starting a new year, but Christine felt in her heart that this time, they were going to find a way to make that future a happy one, no matter the decidedly unusual circumstances that had brought them to this point.

And when they were back in the relative warmth of the opera house and Erik pressed a gentle kiss to her curls after she lowered her hood, she was even more sure of it.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this story! I really appreciate everyone reading, and feel free to let me know what you thought if you would like.
> 
> Happy New Year!!


End file.
